W.H. faces fallout with ozone rule

The White House has some political calculus to do as it prepares to revise the George W. Bush administration’s smog standard.

The problem is this: The EPA's science advisers say the national health-based standard for ozone should be between 60 and 70 parts per billion when averaged over an eight-hour period. But if the EPA sets the standard anywhere in that range, the list of states with areas likely finding themselves in violation of the new regulations includes Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania — swing states that will be crucial to President Barack Obama's reelection next year.

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The administration has the leeway to set the standard within the broad range advocated by agency science advisers.

“There’s still political discretion," said a former Democratic White House official. Within that range, “they’re probably assessing what the tradeoffs are,” that person said. There are meaningful public health benefits to setting a lower limit, “but this stuff doesn’t come cheap.”

Industry officials put it in starker terms. “It’s pretty simple, it’s purely discretionary and it sits on the president’s desk,” said American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard. “He now has the choice: jobs or no jobs, it’s up to him.”

States are required to clamp down on emissions in areas that violate the EPA’s ozone limits, which can result in higher costs to businesses. The estimated cost of the EPA’s proposal ranges from $19 billion to $90 billion, and industry says it has the potential to be the most expensive environmental rule in U.S. history. Meanwhile, the EPA says a standard between 60 and 70 ppb would yield between $13 billion and $100 billion in health benefits by reducing premature deaths, respiratory illnesses and emergency room visits.

In 2008, the Bush administration tightened the ozone limits from 84 ppb to 75 ppb, despite scientific advisers' recommendations to issue a standard between 60 ppb and 70 ppb. EPA's stance now is that the Bush-era rule isn’t sufficient to protect public health and won't stand up against court challenges.

The White House says politics won’t play into the final standard, and insists it can set a science-based standard while keeping costs low.

“This administration will continue to put in place smart standards that protect the health of our families and are based on science and the law, not politics,” a White House official told POLITICO.

“At the same time the president is committed to using the full flexibility in the law to ensure that the implementation of a new standard does not impede our economic recovery,” the official said. “He believes it is essential that considerations of cost and impacts on local communities and businesses are a fundamental part of how any standard would be implemented.”

But industry groups and some lawmakers aren’t convinced. Earlier this month, a phalanx of officials representing top U.S. business groups met with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to make their case.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans are planning to write a letter to the administration this week expressing concerns with the standard, and Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) are circulating a letter in the Senate that asks the EPA to implement the 2008 standard of 75 ppb.